Toyota Unveils Futuristic Anime Series, ‘GRIP’ (Exclusive)

variety.com:

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Toyota is boldly going where few carmakers have gone before: into the anime world. The Japanese automotive brand is launching an all-new anime content series, centered around a “dashing protagonist who’s taking on the evil of soulless automated driving.” Titled GRIP, the five-episode series will be released weekly beginning on February 26 through toyota.com/grip.

Produced for Toyota by Long Beach-based marketing agency, Intertrend, GRIP riffs off the car brand’s popular Gazoo Racing motorsport division and its current roster of cars in an effort to appeal to a Gen-Z and young, Asian-American audience.

Intertrend Executive Director of Strategy/Creative Matthew Choy calls anime the “perfect conduit for this audience, leveraging a storytelling platform that wasn’t an usual, expected ad campaign.” The series follows lead character Joe Kang and his crew as they race around a futuristic metropolis controlled by the fictictious tech conglomerate, SynthCorp.